Mr. Emmert, with all that culture changing you’re so jazzed up about, any possibility this is on your radar?

Former Washington High defensive tackle and Alabama verbal commitment Darius Paige is headed to Foley High School in Alabama.

But that’s only the beginning of the story.

Washington High assistant coach George Schellang confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Paige withdrew from Washington and will be transferring to Foley High.

“Today, (Darius’) dad came in and withdrew him,” Schellang said. “He just came in and cleared out his locker. I saw the withdrawal form and it said he was withdrawing to attend Foley High. All of his transcripts are being sent to Foley.”

Schellang also confirmed that Paige first approached him during the summer about moving to Foley, saying it was recommended to him by Alabama assistant coach Jeremy Pruitt, who at the time was recruiting Paige.

“Darius came in the office one day during the summer after coach (Mike) Smith left and sat down and told me coach Pruitt, who is the Alabama coach who was recruiting him, wanted him to go to Foley High School,” Schellang said. “Basically, he said (Foley High) could take care of him academically.

“My reaction was shock and dismay that a Division I coach would tell a high school athlete that he needed to transfer, that they had people there to help.”

Shock and dismay? But Alabama isn’t any ordinary Division I school, sir.

How much of this is true? Who knows. But one thing you can bet on – the NCAA’s lack of interest.

I am part of another SEC message board and it has been dissected heavily there.

Turns out FHS does block scheduling and the kid can earn 8 academic credits per year rather than the typical 6 credits.. If he is behind and trying to qualify, this move make total sense. It also adds a different context to the “take care of him academically” phrase.

I make no representation as to the accuracy of said information. Just passing it along as food for thought.

And for those of us lucky enough to have been formerly educated at Foley High School – even a long time ago – the schedule involved blocks: stack the blocks up, take the blocks down, stack the blocks up again in another place. Plus the coach there now learned from Rush Probst at Hoover so I’m sure everything is perfectly okie dokie.

With NCLB reporting requirements, it’s easy to do a quick check on these schools.

96% of Foley’s students are reading at the federal minimum level. Less than half of Washington’s are. Now, check the staff pages. Foley has a tremendous number of teachers reserved for 1 on 1 or small group tutoring. Washington has fewer. Put it all together, and Foley has more resources to deal with a much smaller pool of students who need the assistance. If Paige is academically borderline, he’ll have a much better opportunity at Foley than he will at Washington to get over those hurdles.

Basically, Paige gets to transfer to a much better high school because he’s a star athlete. Doesn’t this sort of thing happen all the time?

If you knew a kid wasn’t likely to make eligibility where he was at, but he would somewhere else, what are the ethics of providing/withholding that information?

I’ve volunteered at schools where half the students are on the free lunch program and half of them can’t meet minimum reading requirements. The kids and staff are wonderful people, but the academic challenges in that sort of environment can be overwhelming. A school like Foley can tutor a kid like Paige one on one or in small groups hours a day. A school like Washington can’t justify that sort of intervention for an individual student.

Sucks. But it’s the system we have. If you’ve spent a lot of time in both sorts of schools and seen the results with kid after kid, what’s the ethical move on your part? Tell a kid this school has a much better shot of getting him into Alabama or keep your mouth shut to avoid potential negative publicity?

I’m not saying this is what happened. But it does seem the most likely scenario.

“I’ve volunteered at schools where half the students are on the free lunch program and half of them can’t meet minimum reading requirements.” Congrats on the volunteering. We all need to do more of that. I wish we in ACC could brag on those stats. I have done the volunteer gig at two middle schools with 99% on free lunch program and a large number struggle with language. Might be 100% but some of the teachers have kids there. Wish kids didn’t wait to pursue an education until a perceived need for education kicks in. I know… “wish in one hand….”

I have a niece doing Teach for America at a middle school in the Atlanta area that fits your profile to a T. She wanted to take a break before med school. Now, she’s thinking med school is going to be a breeze. Loves what she’s doing, but it was eye-opening for her. She came from an environment like Foley, everyone college-bound.

Oh, yeah? Says who? They can’t even give a test right. (This is not for you to judge or even acknowledge, this grievance between Saban and his analysts and Chizik and Trooper is an old blood enmity which only generations of the Alabamas versus the Auburns and me from Tennessee can comprehend, while you, being a Georgia, can’t even begin to plumb the depths of it. That is it. They are Alabamas and Auburns and you are only a Georgia and being a Georgia, you are not fit to regard us with anything more than sullen trepidation.) Now get going. Nick’s analysts have some block-scheduling work to do.
RTR

…”and me from Tennessee”… Explain yourself. Are you a Tide fan from TN? If you are, then in my book, you have no standing in this discussion either. And if you are a Bama fan from TN, well, then you have more problems than this space allows.

“and you are only a Georgia ” whoooooaaaa. Only a Georgia? WTF does that mean. You do realize that without GEORGIA , the barners, the bammers and the hillbillies would never field a competitive football team. Only a Georgia indeed sir!

Bullshit to all that I say. I just jumped through serious hoops to get my 5 year old enrolled in kindergarten in his own district. Soooo, he is up and moving with his whole family to that district, WHERE HE IS ELIGIBLE? BULLSHIT I say.

The Alabama-Florida boundary line is all made up and flaggellent anyway because Florida stole the Panhandle from Alabama. But we (and Mike Price) recollect that it was somewhere in the general vicinity of Ma Trishes bar on the mainland, a strip-club by NAS, the River Queen in Orange Beach and the Flora-Bama on the barrier island.

Was reading about the battles of the Revolutionary War the other day and it turns out that Fl was divided into East Fl which encompassed the area between Jax south and west to the Appalachicola River. West Fl was composed of the area from the Appalachicola west to the Mississippi River and extending north into present day Bama between Mont and Birm. Above that was the Georgia colony that encompassed Tenn parts plus the present day states of Bama and Miss to the Miss River.

History reflects that Bama usurped part of West Fl when becoming the present day state that evolved from Georgia (along with formation of Miss).

Wasn’t Mike in Pensacola along with Bama’s credit card? My memory isn’t as steadfast about my last statement, but the gist of it is that he had a big time at the beaches before giving up that coaching job. How many coaches can claim that? Or that they were lap-danced out of a coaching job?

heh…that’s why Mike was runnoft from Alabama, which may have learned by now not to hire coaches named Mike. In any event, I thought Mike P. proved himself to be man enough to be a SEC head coach and was sorry to see him leave. All he did was make it rain inside a strip club either by NAS or somewhere else inside Escambia County.

just silly questions like 1 Who in his family lives in the Foley school district? 2 Did dad move the whole family there and if so at whose expense.3) did dad or mom get a new job with a business entity that just happens to be owned by a big bammer fan. This ain’t rocket science people follow the money. New apartments require deposits,new homes require down payments and families that voluntarily live in the school zone that ” Always someone Else’s fault ” described usually don’t have thousands of disposable dollars just laying around . That’s just a start…WTF is the Bama coaching staff doing steering kids to their preferred schools…..not meaning to be overly cynical but I’d be most interested in knowing does Foley High run the same “D” schemes as the Tide and is their coach a Bama supporter. As he big haired lady says,”I’m just say’in”

Bama is just another PSU, total culture of corruption in that state…and they have one SEC title this century to show for it. How exactly do they throw stones at The aU? Both of them are filthy, only The Barn has no clue how to cover it up so all of America sees their dirt. Saban is as low as Paterno, the things he does to kids to roster manage his excesses is unethical to the max. His character isn’t consistent with the NCAA ideals either,l now does Emmert and the board ignore what goes on in Tusky? That level of bending the rules doesn’t bother them but Houston and JoePa, who have no glaring competitive advantage do?

Is this a serious post? You might want to look at the record. Bama hasn’t exactly owned us of late. Seems we already have figured it out just takes a while to work out of the hole we were in from decades past. Perhaps you need to distinguish between whining and facts. Go troll somewhere else because you seem to be weak sauce.